That’s so interesting! I wonder if some immigrant took it from one country to the other, along with the story

Chorizo is the Spanish variant, our neighbors. Chorizo and chouriço are not quite the same, but similar. AFAIK they have different seasonings.

Out of curiosity, is the soup similar?

From Almeirim in Portugal, there’s “sopa da pedra”, translates to “soup of the rock”. It has several kinds of meat, beans, potato, and it’s usually eaten with bread (some say even a specific local bread type, but I’m not picky on that). It used to come with a stone in it traditionally, but for higiene reasons restaurants are not allowed to anymore. Some people at home still do it, I believe.

With it there is an old tale:

There was once a poor friar that was traveling. Once it came time to rest, he knocked on someone’s door and asked for their hospitality in exchange for a soup. His hosts let him in and they see the friar pulling an old smooth stone from his pocket and putting it in a pot, along with water.

“Some seasoning would make this soup better… Do you happen to have any chouriço?” [best translation I’ve got is “meat”, or maybe “sausage”] asks the friar. And so his hosts find him some chouriço that they throw in the pan.

“It’s looking great! Now this soup would really improve if we could thicken it up a little. Do you happen to have some potatoes or beans leftover from yesterday?” And some potatoes and beans have indeed been leftover from yesterday. The friar adds it to the soup.

The friar asks for a few more spices, olive oil, and soon there is a delicious smell coming from the pot. What a nice soup!

They eat and once the soup is finished the friar fishes out the stone, washes it and puts it back in his pocket. Tomorrow he’ll knock on someone else’s door along the way ;)